


This is the Best Trip Ever

by vangoths



Category: My Chemical Romance
Genre: Alternate Universe - Photographer, Fluff I guess, M/M, travel partners au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-19
Updated: 2020-09-19
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:02:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,817
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26546455
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vangoths/pseuds/vangoths
Summary: Frank Iero, a 24 year-old freelance photographer, embarks on a journey around the world taking photographs and writing a travel journal. On his trip to Japan, he decides to employ TravelBuddy.com to find a travel partner.
Relationships: Frank Iero/Gerard Way
Comments: 3
Kudos: 15





	This is the Best Trip Ever

**Author's Note:**

> I just had this (terrible) idea and decided to write it. The story will likely be three or four chapters long. Enjoy!

Frank lingered around the shelf filled with a multitude of flavours of KitKats. You didn’t get that many flavours in the states. As he took down a box of wasabi flavoured ones from a top shelf to observe them, his phone buzzed. He hurriedly shoved the box back onto the shelf and extracted his phone from his pocket with his free hand. 

‘Hey, just landed. Where are you?’ The text read. 

Frank looked around him for a clear indicator of his location. 

‘I’m at the gift shop near the entrance with the orange signboard. Opposite the Starbucks.’ He texted back with one thumb. He cursed the shitty free Starbucks wifi as the message failed to send. He inched closer to the Starbucks and the message went through.

‘Ok see you.’ The reply read. 

He stuffed his phone back into his pocket and continued surveying the wasabi KitKats. He had moved on to the Sakura flavoured ones when he heard someone clear their throat behind him. 

Frank turned to see a man with messy longish dark hair dressed in an Iron Maiden T-shirt coupled with a black denim jacket and baggy jeans, lugging along a huge luggage bag. 

“Er… Frank?” The man asked tentatively. 

“Yeah, that’s me,” said Frank, extending his hand. “Gerard, right?” 

“Yeah.” 

Gerard’s hand was extremely sweaty and Frank tried to discreetly wipe his hand on his jeans after shaking it, but Gerard wasn’t looking at him. His eyes were darting all around the airport, mouth hanging slightly open.

“First time travelling alone?” Frank asked. 

Gerard seemed to snap back to attention. “Wha… oh yeah. It’s my first time out of the country actually.” His eyes met Frank’s for a moment and then sort of just lingered somewhere on the floor. 

“That’s cool.” Frank started walking toward the exit and Gerard followed him. They joined the line waiting for a taxi. 

“Iron Maiden?” Frank inquired, pointing at Gerard’s shirt. 

“Yeah,” Gerard’s lips quirked up in a small smile. Kinda cute. “You like em?” 

“Hell yeah!”

Gerard’s smile widened but then they both fell silent. As much of a chatterbox Frank was, even he thought it would be too awkward to prompt a two sentence conversation again so he busied himself with his phone, although he just ended up looking at the world clock for lack of wifi. Gerard was probably just shy and would warm up soon, or so Frank hoped. If their entire trip’s worth of conversations was merely going to consist of Frank asking a question and Gerard responding with ‘yeah’, albeit in various degrees of excitement, Frank was going to explode. 

It was finally their turn and Frank and Gerard loaded their bags into the taxi boot. Frank had a large backpack and a small hand-carry while Gerard had a sling bag and his huge luggage bag that Frank now noticed, as he helped Gerard load it into the boot, was almost half as tall as he was and probably half as heavy. 

Frank decided to cut him some slack, it was the man’s first time travelling overseas after all and hey, we all start somewhere. But severely overpacked for a four day trip might be an understatement.

The taxi pulled out of Tokyo International Airport, with Frank in the passenger seat and Gerard in the back. Frank made small talk with the driver as the city rolled past, an impressive mass of concrete and steel encompassing towering skyscrapers and overhead highways. 

Frank admired the city from the window as the driver occasionally pointed out interesting features. Craning his head back, Frank could see Gerard gazing out at the imposing structures in wonder. 

It took them close to an hour to reach their hotel. Frank did all the talking, as expected, and he was immensely thankful when he was finally able to deposit his heavy backpack on the soft carpeted floor of the bedroom. 

They were sharing a twin bed room with a magnificent view of the city. Frank couldn’t wait to see what it looked like at night. It was 2:42pm, they still had several hours to sightsee today. 

“Do you want to have a rest or something?” Frank asked Gerard’s back as he stared out of the large window. 

“Oh no, I’m good.” Gerard hurriedly turned towards him. “I slept on the plane.” 

“You mind if I take a shower first before we head out?” 

“No, no problem. Take your time.” 

Frank stepped into the warm shower and let out a sigh of content. He tried to be as fast as possible though, so that he didn’t keep Gerard waiting. He had woken up early that morning to catch his flight from Jeju Island to Tokyo, and he couldn’t really sleep on the plane. However, it was like he was rejuvenated by the shower, and he now felt completely refreshed. 

When Frank came out of the shower, Gerard was lying on his bed reading a comic book. He looked so focused that Frank didn’t want to disturb him, so he began sorting some of the things in his backpack, hoping Gerard would notice. 

Frank took out all the unnecessary items from his bag, leaving only his laptop, jacket, first-aid kit (you never know), and a small bottle of water inside, storing his passport and extra money in the safe in the closet. He was all set to go. 

Gerard snapped the comic book shut and finally seemed to see Frank. 

“Oh, you’re done.” 

“Yup, ready to go?” 

“Yeah.” Gerard sat up in the bed. 

“Oh yeah, I made a travel plan. Well, sort of.” Frank took out a crinkled sheet of paper from his backpack and sat down next to Gerard. He smoothed it out on his lap. 

Gerard leaned in closer to get a better look and Frank could feel the warmth radiating from him. 

“So, uh, I thought we could shop around in Ginza today and then maybe tomorrow we could go to Meiji Shrine, Sensoji Temple and Ueno Park. Then the next day maybe Disneyland, I don’t know?” Frank felt a little embarrassed at suggesting Disney. His attitude towards Disney was just your average level of appreciation, he definitely wasn’t a fanatic. But it was the place where the magic happens after all, plus he could probably get some different pictures there. Two dudes going to Disney together though, kinda weird. 

“If that’s your kinda thing?” Frank quickly added. 

“No. I mean, yeah. I love Disney.” Gerard nodded, and Frank hoped he wasn’t just agreeing for his sake. 

“If there’s other things you wanna see instead I’m totally cool with it.” 

“I’d like to go to Disney.” Gerard seemed genuine. “I really like cartoons and... that kinda stuff.” Gerard sort of flapped his hand at ‘that kinda stuff’. 

“Cool. Anything else you wanna see or don’t wanna see?” 

“Nah, we’ll just follow your plan.” 

“Feels like I’m dragging you on my own trip,” Frank laughed.

“Nah,” Gerard smiled. “Really. I didn’t have anything in mind. I need to thank you for planning, actually.” 

“It’s no problem,” Frank waved him off. 

They left the hotel and started off to Ginza district. It wasn’t far from their hotel, only five minutes straight ahead, according to the hotel receptionist. The early autumn air of September was just the right temperature, in Frank’s opinion. He walked with his hands on his DSLR, stopping occasionally for a few seconds to snap pictures of the buildings and the street signs. 

The crowd began to thicken as they approached Ginza district, there were people everywhere, crossing the streets and entering and exiting the shops. 

“Where to?” Frank asked. 

Gerard just shrugged. 

“I did read online about some interesting stores here. There’s the world’s largest Uniqlo here, and I kinda wanna see Hakuhinkan Toy Park.” 

“Oh, what’s that?” 

“It’s a really big toy store.” First Disney, now a toy store? Really, Frank? He obviously did not think this through, luckily Gerard didn’t seem to mind. 

“Ooh okay let’s go.” 

They found the Uniqlo in no time, and the store was packed to the brim when they entered. Frank had no intent on buying anything but slowly browsed the racks upon racks of T-shirts and sweatshirts and khakis and bermuda shorts, available in all designs and sizes and colours imaginable. Gerard browsed at his own pace some distance away but still within view. 

They took slightly over an hour to go through the displays on all the twelve floor and when they finally emerged back onto the street empty-handed, Frank’s stomach began to growl. 

Thankfully, Gerard voiced the same concern. “I’m kinda hungry, can we get something to eat?” 

“I’m hungry too.” 

They decided on a small cafe and sat down inside by the window. Gerard ordered a cappuccino and a slice of chocolate cake and Frank got a doughnut and latte. 

The interior of the cafe was painted entirely in pastel colours. Frank loved pastel colours, though he would never seriously admit it. It was always ‘hey do you know I really like pastel colours’ in one breath, and then he would grin like a maniac and people would think he was joking. It was warm inside and Frank pushed his hoodie sleeves up to his elbows, Gerard noticed the ink covering his arms. 

“I like your tattoos.” 

“Thanks.” Frank grinned at him over his latte. “I was thinking of getting knuckle tatts.” 

“Ooh, what are they gonna say?” 

“I dunno, I was thinking ‘Halloween’ maybe, haha.” 

“Favourite holiday?” 

“Also my birthday.” 

“No way.” Gerard looked awestruck. “You’re a Halloween baby? Damn, that’s so cool.” 

“Need to thank my mom for that, I guess.” Frank laughed. 

Gerard laughed too. “Wish I could get tattoos too. They look so cool on other people.” 

“Why can’t you?”

“I’m scared of needles. It’s like a pretty bad phobia kinda... yeah...” 

Frank made a noise of sympathy. 

“I can admire the ones on other people though,” Gerard said. “So there’s that. This cake is really good by the way. Wanna try some?” 

“Sure.” Frank cut out a small piece from the slice.

“Mmm, it is really good.” 

Frank breathed in deeply the strong aroma of coffee and pastries as he enjoyed his own. Well fed and watered, they made their way to Hakuhinkan Toy Park. 

The moment Frank stepped into the store, he immediately knew he had no regrets suggesting this place. The store wasn’t anything like your shopping mall Toys R Us, and as cliche as it sounded, it felt like home. Frank was hit with a wave of nostalgia upon looking at the shelves filled with blocks and action figures of all shapes and sizes. 

“Wow…” Gerard whispered beside him. They went through all the displays slowly, picking up boxes and interesting figures to admire. Gerard let out a small gasp and ran to the huge Dragon Ball Z display. The entire second floor alone was dedicated to stuffed animals. Frank couldn’t resist the urge to pet all the dog plushies. 

They spent close to two hours in that shop, and by the time they left the sky was turning dark. Gerard had purchased two Dragon Ball Z figurines and Frank bought the cheesiest Doraemon keychain he could find for his best friend, Dewees, just to mess with him. 

They sought a ramen shop for dinner, Frank ordering the vegetable ramen. 

“Can I take a picture?” Frank asked, when their steaming food and green tea arrived. 

“Sure.” 

Frank artfully arranged the bowls and snapped away with his camera. 

“Thanks.” Frank pushed Gerard’s bowl back to him. 

“You’re a professional photographer, right?” Gerard asked him. That’s what Frank had written on his profile for TravelBuddy dot com. 

“Haha, I don’t know about professional, but that’s my job, yeah,” Frank replied. “That’s what I majored in college.” 

“Oh wow. So you mainly travel and take photographs?” 

“Er… not really. I normally take photos for events and stuff. I just started this travelling thing like two months ago.” Frank took a bite of his food. Oh my god… it was so good. He took a few more bites. 

“So are you gonna publish a photo album or...?” Gerard took a sip of his green tea. 

“I post some of my photos on Instagram, at catcherinthesky, go follow me,” Frank laughed. “I’m working on a sort of travel journal too right now.” 

“Wait, you’re catcherinthesky? I’m following you, oh my god, oh my god, I love your photos!” Gerard gushed. 

Frank blushed a little, “Aw, thanks haha.” He hurriedly took a sip of broth as an excuse to look down. 

“Is your username a reference to Catcher in the Rye?”

“Yeah! It’s my favourite book.” 

“Nice. Oh my god, I can’t believe it.” 

Frank was feeling incredibly embarrassed now. “Nah, it’s not a big deal.” 

“But it is! I’ve been following you for like, forever.” 

“What’s your username? Lemme follow you back.” Frank opened his Instagram app. “Oh shit yeah, no wifi.” 

“There is.” Gerard pointed at the wall behind Frank. Frank turned back to find a card on the wall with the wifi name and password, he quickly typed it in. 

“I’m at gerardway.” 

Frank searched in his followers list for at gerardway and requested follow, he requested follow with his personal account too. 

“Frankieromustdie? Your personal?” 

“Haha yeah, it sounds so stupid, god. I picked it when I was like seventeen.” 

“Nah, It’s not the worst. You have a dog?” Gerard asked. 

“Yeah, her name is Lois. She just turned one.” 

“She’s so adorable,” Gerard said, looking down at his phone and scrolling. 

“Don’t stalk me in front of me, it's weird," Frank laughed. 

“Ahaha you’re right, sorry.” Gerard put his phone back on the table. 

“What do you write for your travel journal?” 

“Well, you know, the places I visit and the attractions, food, kinda stuff.” 

“Where have you been so far?” 

“I started in China, and then Korea, I flew here from Jeju Island, actually.” 

“Woah.”

“Yeah.” 

“You’ve been doing all that solo right? What made you look for a travel partner this time?” 

“Well, it gets a little lonely after a while. Plus I thought it would be interesting.” 

“Too bad I’m not interesting.” 

“Hey, don’t say that. I’ve been enjoying myself so far.” He gave Gerard a reassuring smile.

“Me too,” Gerard gave a small smile back. 

“What about you though?” 

“Me what?” 

“The while online travel partner thingy.” 

“Oh, it was Mikey. My brother Mikey. It’s been kinda stressful lately at work, and Mikey said I should take a break. He helped me set up the Travel Buddy profile.” Gerard sipped his green tea again, then continued. “I wouldn’t normally do something like this, but Mikey insisted. He’s always been the party animal type. Not me though.” 

“That makes two of us.” 

“Yeah? But you’re so cool though.” 

“Nahhh…” Frank waved him off then chuckled. “I’m talkative but I’m not cool.” 

“Um, hello? You literally travel around the world taking awesome pictures as your job.” 

“Well, I guess my job is cool. What do you do for work?” 

“I work for Cartoon Network. I design characters and stuff.” 

“Bro,” Frank said. “That sounds hella cool. That is literally one of the coolest jobs I’ve ever heard of.” 

“Thanks.” It was Gerard’s turn to blush now and he looked so cute peering down through his (Frank noticed) extra long eyelashes. 

“Cheers.” Frank raises his glass of green tea and they clinked glasses. 

After they had finished and paid for their meal, they stepped out into a dazzling sight of the colourful neon signs, some flicking on and off, some changing colours slowly, lively against the dark night. 

Frank instinctively raised his camera and snapped a few shots. 

“It’s so beautiful,” Gerard gaped. 

“I know.” 

The two of them walked together slowly, craning their necks to look at the signs flashing from above and from all directions. Somewhere in the background there was high-energy electronic music playing. It got louder and louder until Frank could feel the bass literally thumping in his chest as they approached an arcade wedged between a cafe and a shoe store. 

“Wanna go in?” Frank couldn’t hear him properly but he could read Gerard’s mouth and see him incline his head slightly toward the arcade.

“Sure!” Frank nodded. When they entered, Frank found that it was in fact much bigger than it looked to be on the outside. 

Frank saw a Taiko no Tatsujin machine and stopped, tugging on Gerard’s sleeve to get his attention. Frank pointed to the drum machine with his thumb. 

They went up to the machine and Frank inserted 200¥ into the slot. Frank loved this game. He picked up the drumsticks excitedly and the game began. 

As the game got faster and faster, Frank couldn’t help but laugh as Gerard fumbled to strike his drum on the right timing. Gerard was yelling and laughing at the same time. 

“No! Frank argh!” 

“Hahaha, I’m winning!” 

The game ended and Frank had achieved a perfect score. He set the drumsticks down and wiped his sweaty palms on his jeans. 

“Oh my god…” Gerard was panting and laughing. Frank was laughing too, and the sight of Gerard’s flushed face made him laugh harder. “How are you so good this?” 

“Practice. Also my dad taught me drums as a kid.” 

“Woah, your dad taught you drums?” 

“Yeah. He plays with his friends. He’s a session drummer too. My grandad was a drummer too.” When it came to talking about his dad and grandad, Frank had no qualms about bragging about them. 

“Your entire family is cool, my god.” 

Frank just laughed. “Anything else you wanna play? Oh, how bout the dancing game?” 

“You’re gonna laugh at me.” 

“Of course I will, let’s go,” Frank tugged Gerard along and they started the game. When it came to who was the most awkward dancer, Frank felt he must admit it was a solid tie. Soon they both collapsed in laughter at each other’s ridiculous dance moves. 

“Yay! I won!” Gerard yelled as he did a final spinning jump on the last beat. Frank was getting a serious stitch in his side, from the exertion and from laughing so hard. 

“Nice one, dancing queen.” 

They approached a multiplayer racing game next. There was a middle-aged man already sitting at one of the seats when Frank and Gerard approached. He turned towards them. 

He pointed first at himself and then at Frank. “Me and you, versus?” 

“Go, Frank.” Gerard pushed Frank towards the seat. 

“Yeah, sure.” Frank sat down and the game started. The man was obviously a seasoned racing player and Frank’s originally mediocre-at-best driving skills were further confused by Gerard loudly yelling ‘Go right!’ and ’Go left!’ wrongly behind him. 

“You’re confusing me!” Frank yelled back at Gerard. He made a wrong turn and crashed into the barrier. 

“Go go go!” Gerard shouted and Frank slammed into the gas pedal and crashed into another car this time. 

“Yes Frank! Go go! Right! In front! In front!” Gerard continued yelling. “Yes you can beat him!” 

Frank clearly could not beat the man and when he finally cleared the finish line, Frank collapsed in the seat, arms completely sore from gripping the steering wheel so tightly. He though he could hear ringing in his ears too. 

“Good game,” the man said, and the opponents shook hands. 

Frank grabbed his backpack from the floor and the pair moved on to the next attraction. 

Gerard wanted to have a go at one of the claw machines. 

“Come on, Gerard,” Frank encouraged. They watched with bated breath as the claw extended and clamped onto the unicorn plushie. 

“Aw,” Gerard sighed as the claw slid off and retracted. 

“Lemme try.” Frank slot in another 100¥ coin and directed the toggle. They held their breaths and the claw once again extended and grabbed onto the toy. The claw held on to the toy this time.

“Ahhh! Ahhh!” They started yelling at each other and Gerard was actually gripping Frank’s elbows and shaking him. 

There was a satisfying muffled thump as the claw released the plushie and it fell into the deposit. Frank took the toy out and pushed it into Gerard’s hands. 

“Here.” 

“What? No, you have it. You won it,” Gerard said, trying to give it back to Frank. 

“No it’s yours now. I want you to have it.” 

“Thank you,” Gerard hugged the unicorn tightly to his chest, breaking into a laugh again. 

“Lemme take a picture of you,” Frank laughed, and Gerard smiled as Frank took the shot. He showed the picture to Gerard. 

“Ew, I look like an idiot.” 

“No, you look absolutely adorable.” Frank felt his face flush as the words ‘absolutely adorable’ left his lips and he hoped to god that Gerard wouldn’t notice under the coloured disco-like lights flashing around them. 

They decided to call it a night and returned to the hotel. Frank took (another) shower and settled into his bed. It was only 10:32pm. Frank figured he would do some work before hitting the hay and powered on his laptop. 

Gerard was lying in his own bed, in a different Iron Maiden shirt after he too had showered, reading a different comic this time. 

“How many comics did you even bring?” 

“Erm, twenty, I think?” So that was why his luggage was so fucking big and heavy. 

“Why did you even bring that many?” 

“I dunno. I was kinda worried we would run out of stuff to do… I guess...?” 

“That’s fair, I guess.” Frank shrugged. They remained silent for a while and Frank plugged in his headphones and put on Black Flag as he transferred the new photos from his memory card into his Mac and begin editing them. 

Frank was so absorbed in his task that he didn’t keep track of the time. By the time he noticed it was already 12:28am. He shut down his laptop and stuffed it back into his backpack. 

He turned to his left to find that Gerard had already fallen asleep on top of the bedspreads, comic lying open by his outstretched hand. 

Frank put the comic on the table and tried to fold the part of the blanket Gerard wasn’t lying on over him. Gerard stirred a little but soon continued snoring lightly. 

Frank turned off the lamp and snuggled into his warm blanket. He lay awake for a moment as the activities and excitement of the day replayed in his mind. He was gonna have super intense dreams tonight for sure, which would suck, but he had a lot of fun today. Sure, Gerard was a little shy at first but once he had warmed up to Frank, he was actually really fun to hang around with. 

Frank exhaled contentedly and slowly began to drift off to sleep. 

This trip was going to be a good one. 


End file.
